The Tavern Bet
by Henry Vyne
Summary: Arthur and Merlin are drinking in the tavern and Merlin bets that Arthur can't beat an arm wrestler that is challenging people. Merlin uses magic to mess up Arthur and now Arthur has to pay the price of the debt, which isn't money. Might turn into crack later on. I'm still not quite sure.


**AN: I do not own Merlin or it's characters. Special thanks to my wonderful beta, Tears and Rain, who really helped me get a firm grip on what I wanted this story to start out as.**

Merlin and Arthur stood in front of a table in the tavern, Arthur growing a little more than intimidated with every grunt and groan that the arm wrestlers made. Well, more like arm wrestler. One of them, Amis was his name, was clearly just playing with the other at this point.

"So, you still think you can beat him Arthur?" Merlin asked with a widening grin.

"Of course I can beat him! Don't be ridiculous."

"You know, a wise man once said not to say anything unless your certain that it's true."

"Oh, and what wise man would this be?" Arthur said turning to face Merlin.

Merlin smiled and tried to look charming. "I count, don't I?"

"Just...do us all a favor and don't talk."

The duo sat down at the only empty table left, which was conveniently placed close enough to the ongoing wrestling match for them to be able to see and hear what was going on in the game.

"If you're so sure of beating him," Merlin said with a sly grin, "why don't we put a bet on it?"  
Arthur chuckled. "I really don't think that's necessary."

"Well, if you're afraid you'll lose, I suppose we don't have to."

"No! I just... I just think it unfair to practically cheat you out of your money." Arthur said before taking a hefty drink of his ale.

Merlin scoffed and looked to the side. "Since when do you worry about me?" He leaned forward with his elbows on the table. With a quite mischievous tone and an eyebrow raised high, he looked directly at Arthur. "And who ever said anything about betting money?"

After Amis won the practically already won match he stood up and cheered for himself and took the purse of gold from the other side of the table where a now empty chair stood.

Arthur took one last look gulp of his drink and then set the cup on the table and started walking towards his soon to be opponents table. Merlin quickly poured the remains of Arthur's drink into his own mug, and then ran to catch up with Arthur, cup still in hand.

Arthur sat down in his chair on the opposite side of where Amis was sitting. He untied his pouch of gold from his trousers and emptied all of it's contents onto the table. Amis pushed all of winnings that night a little forward and placed his elbow on the table, holding his hand out to Arthur in an arm wrestling stance.

Merlin stood behind Arthur drinking merrily from his cup while watching the scene before him. Arthur was doing surprisingly well against the bulky man and was holding his opponent's arm at about a 110 degree angle.

With a flash of gold from his eyes, Merlin caused Arthur's whole right arm to become temporarily numb, which in turn caused a very quick victory of Amis. The said man stood and waved his hands above his head and cheered for himself again, while trying to coax other men to take part in the game.

Arthur looked slightly embarrassed at first for losing the match, but his expression soon turned into bafflement and frustration as to why his arm had suddenly been paralyzed. It was in perfect working order now and Arthur swung it around a few times and squeezed both his shoulder blades together with ease. He looked around the room in confusion until Merlin blocked his line of sight.

Merlin smirked while drinking his ale. "Well, looks like I've won." He chuckled quietly at Arthur's face of what almost looked like fright and then walked over to the barkeeper for another drink.  
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**AN: So, tell me what you think in a review please! I still haven't figured out what I want the bet to even be, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in a comment or PM me. Thanks for your time!**


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